Although the mood was festive in the first hours after France beat Belgium 1-0 to reach the final of the Russia 2018 World Cup, marking the third time the French team did so, by the early hours of Wednesday morning riot police was called in to control the crowds at the Champs-Elysees, the boulevard near Paris’ Eiffel Tower, as the level of alcohol consumption and the general discontent over police being present made sure the atmosphere turned violent.

In the southern city of Nice, some twenty fans were hurt in a stampede caused by firecrackers whilst in the capital Paris, some ‘fans’ started throwing bottles and stones at the police presence in the center.

Whereas during the first few moments after the soccer victory all still went well, by 4 am dozens of fans could be seen running down the main street with flares and throwing debris, including metal barriers and traffic cones, at the Paris police, who responded by calling in their colleagues for reinforcement and then charging at them.

Mr Jean-Gabriel Delacroix from the city council admitted that 27 people were injured and police made dozens of arrests. He stated: “There was a crowd surge after firecrackers were detonated. Most of the injuries are glass cuts and bruising picked up when people fell.”

<b>Croatia - England</b>

The other semi-final tonight is between Croatia and England and over in London politicians were quick to voice their anger towards French President Emmanuel Macron (who had chosen to visit the semi-final together with the Belgian King Philippe).

UK politicians had stated beforehand they would not send anyone to Russia on behalf of the nation as they have ruptured diplomatic ties with the Kremlin over the alleged poisoning of two individuals by Russia whilst on UK soil.